Qufu
can be reached by a half
hour bus ride from
Yanzhou, which is a stop
in Shandong Province
halfway on the Beijing –
Shanghai Railway.
The city has a long
history. It is said to
be the ruin of the
capital of Shan Hao (one
if the five legendary
rulers before recorded
history in China); five
kilometers northeast of
the city is Shao Hao’s
tomb, the only pyramid
in China built with
square stones.
Qufu was the hometown of
Confucius (551-479
B.C.), the celebrated
thinker, philosopher and
educator of the Spring
and Autumn Period. For
twenty-five centuries,
he has exerted profound
influence on Chinese
society with his ideas
right up to the present
century. As the
para-religious cult
which came to embrace
his thinking grew,
shrines and temples were
erected to his memory in
Qufu. Among more than
three hundred historical
sites here, the most
famous are Temple of
Confucius (Kongmiao),
Confucius Mansion
(Kongfu), and Forest of
Confucius (Konglin).